Question: Does a School Principal Have the Right to Enforce a Parent Dress Code?
One would think that a parent walking into their child’s school would want to make a good impression and dress accordingly. We are, after all, judged, at least in part, on appearance and first impressions count. Well, some folks apparently don't see it that way, thus...
Teacher Appreciation Week, 2019
Once a year and not nearly often enough, we take note of our teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week. Along with your support, be sure to thank all those educators who have taught you well and whose lessons on living have made all the difference... "A teacher...
Ed Tech: A Billions Academic Game Changer?
The Education Week Research Center put education technology’s effectiveness to the test and found that, when it comes to teachers’ views about related innovations: Less than 33% said they’ve changed their beliefs about what schools should look like. Less than 50% said...
Randi Weingarten: De-professionalization’s Impact on the State of Teaching, the Art of Teaching
Speaking at the National Press Club last week, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, spoke her mind in no uncertain terms about the plight of teachers. Noting the profession’s “ongoing and alarming crisis,” she targeted two major...
How States Rate Schools Using Standardized Tests under ESSA
You’ve just gotta love the lofty titles of Obama’s Every Student Succeeds Act, (ESSA), and its predecessor, Bush’s 2001’s No Child Left Behind, or NCLB---as if a 100% success rate were ever doable. No stragglers, no one bringing up the rear, no one back there at all....
The Teaching Life: Diminished Returns and the Temptation to Walk Away
Washington Post’s Andrew Van Dam reports that, back in the early 1990s, teachers and support staff enjoyed above-average paychecks in 26 out of the 42 states in the Labor Department’s database. By 2017, only one state, Rhode Island, could make that boast, while the...
Tech Presides with Impersonal “Personalized Learning”
Ed tech continues to change schooling, with devices and online programs nowadays taking front and center, not the teacher. That is most certainly the case with personalized learning, the latest education reform buzzword. Although touted by proponents as learning’s...
Big Brother Alive and Well in Our Classrooms
Be advised: Microsoft’s Bill Gates is now out there calling textbooks "obsolete" and predicting their imminent death. Yes, this despite the fact that ongoing studies keep finding/proving that students prefer reading the paper variety. Moreover, when coming across...
For the Love of Laptops and Note-taking—or Not!
So, are laptops in the classroom “a lifeline” or a distraction that also negatively affects note-taking and learning? That’s a question on many researchers’ minds… In a 2014 study, researchers Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer concluded that “,,, Even if laptops are...
The Chance-for-Success Index Report
For starters, the recent Education Week Research Center’s Chance-for-Success Index reflects experiences--both in and out of school--that affect how well we do over the course of our lifetimes. It’s based on 13 specific education-related factors in a person’s life...
The Unintended Consequences of Lost Recess Time, School Breakfasts, and Pot
It’s not rocket science to realize there might be downsides to some feel-good political measures, and yet they’re often met with applause, as in the case of these three: Recess Time: In the name of core subjects and standardized test prep, by 2008 at least 40% of U.S....
Ed Tech Issues: Summit Learning, Data Privacy, and Cybersecurity
The students chant: “No Summit! No Summit” echoed across McPherson Middle School’s campus on a recent, cold January afternoon. The reason: Facebook’s ChanZuckerberg Initiative’s Summit Learning. Said 7th grader Drake Madden, “It’s a learning program that is supposed...
Making Education News: The Denver Teacher Strike, Ed Tech, Letter Grades & Homework, Too
The Denver Classroom Teachers Association's agreement includes:1) A 7% to 11% increase in base salary of $43,255 for a starting teacher; 2) A "clear and transparent 20-step salary schedule; 3) Full cost of living increases in the 2nd and 3rd year of the agreement; 4)...
Quotable Quotes: Reagan, Northam, Scouts BSA, and “Alita: Battle Angel,” Too
Read on, and then have your say, too... "We must reject the idea that every time a law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." ~ Ronald Reagan About Virginia...
Is Artificial Intelligence Our School Safety Solution?
We've already invited Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our homes; as I write Alexa is singing to me--and also listening to every word said in my home. Unsettling at best but not yet unplugged... And now, as we recognize the one-year, February 18, anniversary of the...
Profiling America’s Public Schools: Students, Educators, and Funding Costs
With thanks to Maya Riser-Kositsky’s January 16, 2019 Education Week piece we know that, of the 133,853 public schools in 2015-16… 88,665 Elementary schools 26,986 Secondary schools 16,511 Combined 691: Other, including those for special education and alternative...
Toxic America: School Shootings by the Numbers
Over the past year, Florida’s Broward County—home to Parkland--spent more than $1.1 million on security cameras alone, and they’re not stopping there. Currently on the table is a next generation surveillance system called “intelligent video analytics.” Police use it,...
Los Angeles Teachers Head Back to School
Six days ago, 34,000 Los Angeles educators took to the streets; today, they’re back in the classroom. And, although they haven’t yet signed on the dotted line, it looks like the 8th major teacher walkout in recent times has ended, but... As Curmudgucation blogger...
America’s Public Schools: Its Students, Teachers, and Funding Costs
According to Maya Riser-Kositsky’s January 16, 2019 Education Week piece, in 2015-16, our 133,853 public schools were made up of: 88,665 Elementary schools 26,986 Secondary schools 16,511 Combined 691: Other, including special education and alternative schools. At the...
Starting the New Year Gratefully
And so it begins: a new year, a chance to re-evaluate, keep some newly-minted promises, and make kindness and gratitude mainstays of our lives. There is, after all, much to be thankful for—yes, even in this conflict-driven culture we’ve created for ourselves whose...
